Part of my 'Cathar Castles" project, as Béziers was the site of the first conflict of the Albigensian Crusade. The Pope had declared the Cathars to be heretics in 1208, and by July of the following year the Crusader army was advancing towards the Cathar stronghold of Carcassonne. They offered to spare Béziers if about 200 named heretics were handed to them, but the town's citizens refused to accept this. Béziers was briefly beseiged, then attacked and sacked. It was claimed that 20,000 men, women and children were murdered, some inside churches that were set alight. The crusader army was led by a charmer called Arnaud Amalric, who was the Abbot of Citeaux. When asked how heretics could be distinguished from true Catholics he was said to have replied "Kill them all, the Lord will know his own."
